Criminal justice reporter

A husband and wife were arrested early Monday morning soon after they robbed employees and customers of a Waffle House in south Athens.

Frankie Shaunae Nicole Buck, 32, allegedly drove her husband to the restaurant at 2034 S. Milledge Ave. at about 3 a.m., at which time 44-year-old Randall Shane Buck went inside wearing a mask, Athens-Clarke County police said.

Randall Buck brandished a handgun and ordered the three employees and three customers to take out their cellphones, which he then collected, police said.

He took an undisclosed amount of cash from a register then drove off in an employee’s car, police said.

While his intent in taking the phones may have been to delay any 911 calls, someone in the restaurant had another cellphone he used to call police.

Athens-Clarke County police Lt. Jerry Saulters happened to be in the general vicinity at the time and quickly located the stolen car on Timothy Road, where he tried to make a traffic stop, police said.

Sgt. Ben Dickerson deployed “stop sticks” at West Broad Street and Briarcliff Road, where the stolen getaway car’s tires were flattened, according to police.

Officers quickly converged on the disabled car and took Randall Buck into custody.

The weapon that officers recovered from the stolen getaway car turned out to be a BB gun, Sizemore said. Cash and some of the stolen cellphones were also recovered.

After investigators learned that Frankie Buck may have driven her husband to the Waffle House, they contacted her and asked her to meet them at police headquarters for an interview, police said. She was subsequently arrested.

The Bucks were each charged with six counts of armed robbery, police said, and Randall Buck was additionally charged with six counts of aggravated assault and single counts of fleeing to elude arrest and theft by taking, police said.

Both are being held without bail at the Clarke County Jail.

Randall Buck was booked into jail with an address on Red Oak Run in Winterville, but Frankie Buck had an address in Jackson, Ga.

Maj. Mark Sizemore, commanding officer of the Athens-Clarke County police Centralized Criminal Investigations Division, said he was unsure if the Bucks are still married and living together.